5 Steps to Becoming an Innovation
Champion
Coming up with new ideas is easy.
Getting them implemented is the hard part.
There is one truism in
organizational life: inertia dominates. Your ideas, no matter how brilliant,
will always face a certain amount of resistance. That’s not an evaluative
statement. That’s a fact. If you want to be a champion for innovation, you have
to develop specific skills that will help you overcome inevitable
organizational opposition. Yes, even if that opposition comes exclusively from
people you yourself have hired.
You have to learn how to be
politically competent (yes, political!) and learn how and when to champion an
idea.
As a leader or entrepreneur, it’s no
easy task to champion ideas. There will be plenty of pushback, silo’d thinking,
and obstacles in your way. Here are the micro-political skills you need to be a
champion of new, innovative ideas.
1. Develop a sense of
timing
Selecting the timing for publically
backing a new idea is important. Once you make a formal announcement or offer
the slightest hint of endorsement, there is no backing down. You can’t hold up
your hands in the face of resistance and say you were joking. That’s not good
leadership.
You must make sure you don’t bring
your ideas to the table until they are cooked, especially if you’re not sure
whether your idea is something you’re going to pursue all the way. A surefire
way to ruin your credibility is to be labeled as someone who doesn’t follow
through.
Perfectionism is one of your chief
enemies here. This is especially true in areas such as product development.
While you’re working to perfect your prototype, your competitor may be
preparing to go to market. Think your idea through fully, be certain that you
are ready to launch your campaign, but don’t keep waiting for the ideal time.
There may never be one.
2. Know your allies and
resistors
In organizations, as in politics,
having a small group of committed supporters is essential. Your challenge is to
find this key group, expand it, and supply it with limited time and resources.
While allies are core supporters who love your new idea, there is no guarantee
they’ll stay on board. Resistors may fight your new proposal, but with the
right trade-offs they may turn into your strongest supporters. An innovation
champion conducts a daily poll as to who is in their corner and works
persistently to maintain and preserve their coalition.
3. Establish your
credibility
The depressing reality is that a lot
of fine ideas get squashed in organizations because the person pitching the
ideas lacks the credibility to be a successful sponsor. As a pragmatic leader,
you have to be credible. Others have to believe that you can get the job done.
You just can’t say, “Hey, I’m the guy for the job.”
You have to be smart and establish
your expertise, show that there is an opportunity for action, lean on your
positional authority, and demonstrate your integrity. If you fire on these four
cylinders, others will believe you can deliver.
4. Know the arguments against
your idea
Aristotle once said, “Criticism is
something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being
nothing.” Without disrespect to Aristotle, avoiding action isn’t necessarily a
guard against criticism. In fact, you likely will be criticized for not taking
action. Criticism is one of the realities of leadership, and there is nothing
to do but accept it. Instead of letting critics take you by surprise, learn to
anticipate what they are going to say, and respond to criticism without losing
your head.
Before pitching an idea think of all
the possible arguments of resistance and prepare rebuttals, even for arguments
you think are outlandish. You have to be prepared.
5. Justify your idea
You have your idea and you know
there is a need for action. You have to get others to go along with you to make
your idea a reality. How do you sell your idea? How do you frame your idea in a
way that makes people want to come on board?
There are four approaches you can
take:
- Use analytics, numbers, and projections to back your arguments.
- Say that your competitors are adopting ideas like yours, and that your company needs to stay ahead of the curve.
- Argue that people expect it of you or your team.
- Indicate that regulations or future protocols will demand the acceptance of your idea.
Even as an entrepreneur or CEO, you
can't simply introduce an idea and expect people to buy in right away. You
might convince your employees, but then they'll need some good arguments to get
your clients to go along. Use these five steps as a springboard to help get the
most out of innovative ideas.
BY Samuel
Bacharach http://www.inc.com/samuel-bacharach/five-steps-to-becoming-an-innovation-champion.html?cid=em01020week39a&nav=su
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